Colombia has allocated $3.3 million to expand the monitoring of the country’s most active volcanoes, authorities announced Sunday.
According to radio station Caracol, the extra funds will be invested in the volcano observatories in the cities of Manizales, Popayan and Pasto where nearby volcanoes have shown regular seismic activity over the past few years.
The director of the National Geological Service told the radio station that the money will be used to buy high-tech equipment that allow the observatories to design risk and volcanic threat maps.
Additionally, the funds will be used to expand the study on the Nevado del Ruiz, the Cerro Machin and the Cerro Bravo volcanoes’ individual activity.
Colombia has some 15 volcanoes. Seven of them erupted in the last 100 years.